With three more days to go before the final election
results are declared after the re-polls at Nawalapitiya and Trincomalee
are completed on Tuesday and the results announced the next day,
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is playing his hand regarding various
appointments he will make very close to his chest.

"He’s been given various ideas but he is telling nobody
what he plans to do,’’ a very senior member of the administration said
yesterday.

The re-poll at several polling stations at Nawalapitiya
is attracting a great deal of interest in the context of the final Kandy
district results, in terms of preference votes, being yet in the
balance.

"The likely timetable is the election on April 20 and
the declaration of the results after midday with the various parties
compiling their National Lists which will bring 29 members into
Parliament,’’ a senior politician explained.

"Parliament will meet on April 22 with the first item of
business being the election of the Speaker. We won’t have the tension we
had on that business we had the last time round,’’ he chuckled.

The outgoing Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara, a veteran UNPer
from Haputale, changed sides in the dying hours of the previous
parliament with his son running on the UPFA ticket as organizer for
Haputale with the father placed on the government party’s National List.

"Lokubandara, of course, will not be Speaker again,’’
knowledgeable sources said. ``It is widely expected that one of two
senior ministers in the last cabinet will fill the slot.’’

Asked to identify the `possibles,’ the sources declined
to do so. He said there may be changes between now and the event but
there will be a surprising appointment if the chips fall as now
expected.

Senior political observers and analysts were
disappointed that Mr. Sarath Amunugama, widely regarded as one of the
ablest and best performing ministers in the last government, is under
attack from his own side for a seat in the Kandy district from the UPFA
with an effort to deprive him of preferences from government supporters.

"There is a campaign against him,’’ a senior government
source admitted. ``He is targeted.’’ However he was expected to scrape
through and mentioned for a senior position in the in coming government.

"There’s a lot of guessing and a lot of people waiting
hat in hand. But the president is firm on his stand that the cabinet
size is reduced to between 35 and 38 ministers. Newcomers will not get
ministries,’’ the sources said.

He recalled that when the UPFA candidates went to the
Sri Maha Bodhiya in Anuradhapura to kick off their campaign, a
resolution to limit the size of the cabinet to below 40 was unanimously
adopted.